French National Assembly Approves Online Gambling

France moved one step closer to legalized online gambling through private companies on Tuesday when the National Assembly approved legislation to license private companies for online gambling. The law also would include soccer and horse racing betting.

Budget Minister Eric Woerth introduced the bill that will change the face of Internet gambling in the country. Currently, there are only two government-run monopolies handling online gambling in the country.

The National Assembly vote of 302 to 206 is only half of the work that needs to be done for the law to take affect. Now, the legislation will go to a vote in the Senate. If approved there, private companies would then begin to be licensed.

France will tax the new licensees two percent, which is low in terms of industry standards. The online gaming operators, however, will not be permitted to offer games of luck on their sites. France considers poker, sports betting, and horse racing betting all games of skill.

The companies that will be applying for the new licenses did receive some bad news on Tuesday. An amendment to the legislation calls for all companies to close all their current French accounts for at least six months before they may apply for a license.

There was also another amendment that dealt a blow to such companies as William Hill and Ladbrokes. Any operator that is based in areas where taxes are lower, mainly Gibraltar, may not receive a license.

France has been one of the countries that has been warned by the European Commission that their online gambling laws are not in compliance with European Union trade agreements. Spain, Italy, and the US have received similar warnings and are working towards changing their Internet gambling laws to come into compliance.

October 14, 2009
Posted By Terry Goodwin
Staff Editor, CasinoGamblingWeb.com
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